President will sign a law guaranteeing peaceful and voluntary move of parishes to the UOC: Creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is a demonstration of our unity
President Petro Poroshenko thanked the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and its Chairman Andriy Parubiy for the fact that the Parliament had supported the appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch on granting the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and adopted the necessary legislative basis for the process of unification into the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine to be peaceful.
"I will soon sign a law guaranteeing exceptionally peaceful and voluntary move of parishes in a clear procedure determined by the law of Ukraine," Petro Poroshenko said during the speech on the occasion of the Day of Unity of Ukraine and the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Act Zluky between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
The President emphasized the importance of the spiritual foundation of our independence. "We know what the foundation of our home should be. We know that it has one more indispensable pillar, the pillar of our spiritual independence. We cannot go the way we chose if the Ukrainian Orthodox community is divided. We must deprive the enemy of such an instrument - the instrument of weakening our statehood - as the dependence of the church on Moscow, on the influence of the aggressor country," Petro Poroshenko said.
The Head of State said: "The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine once again demonstrated the power of unity. We have once again made it clear that when we are united, nothing is impossible for us. What seemed impossible for years, decades, centuries has come true. The time has come for us to continue to build a common peaceful, prosperous home for all Ukrainians on this spiritual foundation, unscalable to the enemy".
"Tomos is another symbol of our independence, both state and spiritual," he added.
The Head of State recalled the words of the Ecumenical Patriarch after the signing of the Tomos addressed to Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy: "Dear brother, on this wonderful historic day in the sacred center of Orthodoxy Prince Vladimir and Princess Olga are with us, and all the descendants of the Ukrainian land are with them. All those who stood for their obvious rights; who defended them with perseverance as separate rights of the Ukrainian people, as universal justice and as rights of the individual".
The President also reminded the words of Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan who called for the creation of a single autocephalous church and called the golden-domed Kyiv a "new Jerusalem." According to him, the Metropolitan commanded his successor to unite with all the Orthodox of Ukraine into a single autocephalous church.
"It is worth paying attention to these words of a true Christian and patriot of our land for anyone who decides today either to become a member of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, or to stay in the Moscow’s church," Petro Poroshenko said. "We make sure that this choice is peaceful, without violence," he added.
